§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HALSBURY), in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, that the object of the great bulk of the Bill was to enable the superfluous words "be it enacted that" to be omitted wherever they occurred in the Acts of Parliament reprinted in the first three volumes of the new cheap edition of The Statutes Revised. The first volume, which would otherwise have come out at the beginning of the year, had been postponed to enable this and some other small repeals to be made. It was surprising to know that it would lessen the size of the book by 60 pages. It was hoped that there might be no delay in passing so formal a measure through Parliament, so that the production of the cheap edition of the revised statutes might be proceeded with.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly.